Back from Coz! Trip report....

[scubajen]

As promised, here is my trip report...Aug 16-23
Hotel Brisas, Dive Paradise

Let me first start by saying that my husband and I had a wonderful time. The diving was great, and the other divers
we met were all very nice. The weather was fantastic.

Hotel Brisas review...
Room was clean, small(which didn't matter since you are only
there to sleep) no problems with drains or toilets, air-conditioning worked great. No complaints.
The pool by the rooms was indeed very large, but we found that
we prefered the one across the road because of the pretty view.
Food was edible but not great. It was good to do the all-inclusive though because it was convienent for breakfast and lunch. We did try dinner there a couple of nights, which wasn't very good. Drinks were great and found them to be strong but tasty. Service wasn't great, but that is what you get doing
all-inclusive. The lockers and the rinse area for our scuba gear was very nice to have. Let me also say that I read complaints about the front desk staff, but I found them to be very nice and helpful.
I would stay there again, but I think we might first try other hotels the next time we go back.

Dive Paradise review...
Great operator! No complaints. They were very nice. In fact the first night we got there we went into town and did a little too much partying and missed out first dive day on Sunday. Since we missed Sun, they said we could go ahead and do the 2 morning dives on Fri. since our plane wasn't leaving until the afternoon on Sat. Thought that was very nice of them!
Since it was our first time drift diving, we hird a private dive master for our first time out. He stayed right with us and soon found how very easy and how much fun it was. All of the different dive masters we dove with were all very safe consious.
They made our dives fun. I would dive with them again.
I was a little worried before I left about how deep we would be going and about the currents. Didn't go past 90ft. and found
with the crystal clear blue water, it didn't seem to matter if you
were at 50ft or 90ft. Looked the same. The current was strong the first couple of days we dove which was fun to fly through the water. Saw many fish, sea turtles, eel, lobsters, and crab.
The coral was beautiful and amazing to see. There was a free-lance photographer that went down with us and got a couple good shots of me and my husband. Can't wait to frame those pictures.

Restaurants...
We did go to Pachos Backyard our first night there and found
the food to be very good. Hit Carlos and Charlies. Fun, but expensive drinks. Hit a couple of backroad restaurants, but
cannot remember the names of them, sorry. Went to
Jose Frog and had dinner there. Not sure why. It was more
of a nightclub than a place to have dinner. Food was ok, not great.

The people in Cozumel was all very nice and helpful.
We would go back! One other tip... Go to the local grocery store for the best prices on tequila to bring home!

I think I covered the basics. E-mail if you have any questions.
I would be happy to answer them.

Thanks to those of you who helped me decide on going to Cozumel and for putting up with my 1000s of questions.

 

[daylight]

Glad you had a great trip and enjoyed Cozumel.

 

[munkispank]

Hey there scubajen,

thanks for the trip report- nice and detailed. I noticed you posted that you didn't think there was much of a house reef, was it just plain sand- or was there anything at all to see.

Also, my trip will be my first to coz, and I wanted to know how the drift diving worked with your operator. I have read posts about other op's and the dive procedure, did you all ascend with the DM when the first person hit 500? did they separate you into groups of experience etc?

thanks for any advice.
Jackie

 

[scubajen]

There were a lot of fish off the shore. We didn't venture
out too far, so maybe we missed some things.
Once you hit 700 psi, you and your buddy ascend together.
My husband and I were usually the first ones to run low on air, so
we would just motion to the dive master low on air and go up on our own. With the current taking everyone the same direction, we all usually ended up close to the group. No they really didn't separate you into groups according to experience level, but we didn't find that to be a problem. You might want to hire your own private dive master for your first dive so that you feel more comfortable. We figured $37 wasn't a bad price for our safety.

Have fun!